Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Animal Control Officer Appreciation

By Diane Forrest

A few weeks ago I was flipping
through the TV channels and saw that one station was playing the Lady and the
Tramp. I hadn't seen it in years, so
thought I would watch it. There was one
scene where a rickety old wagon was making its way down the street, and all the
dogs were running and hiding from its view.
Then when Tramp was captured, it started to race back to the lock up
unit, hitting another dog trying to stop it.

Im sure that movies like this
and others that depict the role of the dog catcher in a bad light, made this
job a particularly hard career choice, and hated by the younger crowd. The small town that I live in only has one
Animal Control Officer, and she works five days a week, from 8 to 5. However, she doesn’t just pick up stray
dogs. The area is surrounded by wooded
land and the Mississippi River. She has
had to respond to calls about bears, snakes, alligators and even a wolf.

According to Wikipedia, the
availability of training and popularization of the job through television shows
has brought increasing opportunities to the field. The New York American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) employs several animal
"cops" with quasi police powers. This arrangement is becoming more
common throughout the United States, accordingly offering greater compensation.
Due to FBI profilers finding an association between cruelty to animals and
interpersonal violence, some animal cruelty investigators are specially trained
police officers and many domestic violence shelters include sheltering for
animals through animal control agencies and suggest protective orders for pet
animals for victims seeking services

This week is National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week. This week of appreciation will finally give
some recognition towards the hard-working men and women of Animal Control that
risk their lives and spend huge amounts of personnel resources including time
away from family and friends while serving the public like all the other public
safety and law enforcement agencies involved and empowered with the same
duties. To show your appreciation to
your own local animal control officer/officers give them a call, send a card or
take a batch of brownies, let you know that you appreciate the job they do to
keep you and animals safe.